After trailing by more than 10,000 votes on election night, Democratic North Carolina State Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs pulled off an unexpected victory by 734 votes after absentee and provisional ballots were counted and the results were affirmed by two recounts, including a hand count completed on Tuesday. “Let this race serve as a reminder that every vote counts,” said North Carolina Democratic Party chair Anderson Clayton.
But the election has yet to be certified because Riggs’ GOP opponent, Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, has challenged the validity of more than 60,000 ballots, including those of Riggs’ parents.
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“The scale of this should be deeply troubling to anyone who has any respect for the rule of law,” Riggs told me on Wednesday. “With 60,000 people, it is everyone’s friend, it’s everyone’s family member, it’s everyone’s neighbor. There’s no one who doesn’t know someone on that list.”
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Griffin’s campaign has claimed ballots were wrongly counted from people who failed to provide a driver’s license or Social Security number when they registered to vote, had a felony conviction, died before Election Day, or voted overseas without proper identification. However, the voter challenges have ensnared many legitimate voters, including at least 21 local officials. During a hearing before the state board of elections on Wednesday, Griffin’s attorney couldn’t point to a single example of an ineligible voter on their challenge list.
Griffin’s campaign also appears to be targeting certain Democratic-leaning constituencies; Black voters were twice as likely as white voters to have their ballots contested, found the Raleigh News & Observer, and voters aged 18 to 25 were the largest group of challenged voters.
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Now hold my beer for a second: How are they able to tell which vote belongs to whom after the fact? The secrecy of ones vote is a cornerstone of democracy.
